Richard Falk is the present United Nations Special Rapporteur for
the Palestinian Territories. His job is to monitor the human rights situation
in the territories, with particular reference to international law, and report
back to both the U.N. General Assembly and the United Nations Human Rights
Council. He is professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University
and well qualified for his United Nations post.

Professor
Falk was appointed in 2008 to a six-year term in his present position. That
means he has been telling the unsettling truth about Israeli behavior for four
years now, with another two to go. Repeatedly he has documented Israeli
violations of international law and its relentless disregard for Palestinian
human rights. For
instance:

--
In his 2008 report Falk documented the "desperate plight of civilians in
Gaza."

--
In his 2009 report Falk described Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip as a "war
crime of the greatest magnitude."

--
In his 2011 report Falk documented Israeli policies in Jerusalem and labelled
them "ethnic cleansing."

--
And finally, in this latest report for the year 2012, Falk has concentrated on
two subjects:

First -- Israel's treatment of Palestinian prisoners which, he concludes, is so bad as to
warrant investigation by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It should be
noted that Israel does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICJ. However,
condemnation by this organization would, within the context of growing awareness
of Zionist crimes, help further educate public opinion.

Second -- Falk documents the assistance given Israel's expansion of colonies on the
Palestinian West Bank by a number of multinational corporations, including
Motorola, Hewlett-Packard and Caterpillar Inc. This assistance may be
profitable, but it is also manifestly illegal. The CEOs and board members of
these companies stand in violation of international laws including provisions of
the Geneva Conventions. Since no nation, nor the UN itself, seems ready to
prosecute them, Professor Falk has recommended a boycott of the guilty firms
"in an effort to take infractions of international law seriously."

Part
II -- Reactions

In
a sane world this work would make Richard Falk a universally acclaimed defender
of justice. But ours is not a sane world. And so you get the following sort of
responses from both Israel and its supporters:

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Karaen
Peretz, the spokeswomen for the Israeli Mission at the
United Nations, found Professor Falk's latest report "grossly biased." This is
a sort of response used by someone who cannot dispute the evidence and so must
resort to attacking the character of the one presenting the evidence. Peretz
also asserted that "Israel is deeply committed to advancing human rights and
firmly believes that this cause will be better served without Falk and his
distasteful sideshow. While he spends pages attacking Israel, Falk fails to
mention even once the horrific human rights violations and ongoing terrorist
attacks by Hamas."

Actually,
this is not true. Back in 2008, Falk requested that his mandate from the UN
Human Rights Council be extended to cover infringements of human rights by
Palestinian governments just so he would not seen as partisan. Subsequently,
Mahmoud Abbas' pseudo Palestinian Authority called for Falk's resignation. In
this job, you just can't win.

In
any case, Falk's documenting of Israel's crimes puts the lie to Peretz's claim
that Israel is "deeply committed to advancing human rights" and that
documentation cannot be dismissed as a "sideshow." Relative to 64 years
of ethnic cleansing, it is the militarily insignificant missiles out of Gaza
that are the "sideshow." And, can we honestly assume that Ms Peretz's attitude
toward Professor Falk would turn for the better if in this report he had
mentioned Hamas "even once"?